June 7, 2012

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I started this project way back when because I wanted to share with the rest of the world what I loved about my hometown and its people. That said, I never intended it to be a platform for blind boosterism. If I encounter something that displeases me in my everyday life as a Detroiter – in my everyday life as an sentient being – that displeasure will more likely than not seep into a TPOD post.

That said, the past couple of posts have been admittedly heavy. In "Why Midtown is Better than Royal Oak" an incident at a suburban Starbucks led to a discussion of how social equity is affected for better or worse by the demographics of a place.

In "Dezey and the World of Tomorrow" we discussed how disproportionate religiosity in the black community leads to disproportionately high homophobia in the black community.

Fun times.

So, in the interest of balance, I figured it was time to revisit the purpose that truly drives The People of Detroit: an excuse to take pictures of pretty girls.

An opportunity presented itself at the grand opening of a phenomenal new art space in Detroit: The Redbull House of Art. I saw the young woman above accompanied by an attractive, remarkably similar looking, slightly older woman. I asked the young woman to take her photograph. The attractive, remarkably similar looking, slightly older awoman immediately interceded:

"Where is this going?"

Before I share my answer, I should probably share an update on the Dezey essay. In the essay, I referenced a 2010 Pew Research Center poll that showed only 30 percent of black Americans approved of gay marriage. Three days after I published the Dezey essay, Pew released a mid-April 2012 poll that showed black American support for gay marriage had increased to 39 percent.

Noah Stephens founded The People of Detroit Photodocumentaryin April 2010 as a counterpoint to media fixated on despair and disrepair in the storied birthplace of American auto manufacturing. Since, TPOD has received national and international attention. Portraits from the project have appeared in Bloomberg BusinessWeek and other national publications.

In early 2011, a creative director saw the project online and hired Noah to shoot an ad campaign for McDonald's Corporation in Shanghai, China.

6 comments:

Call me stupid (as I know u will) but your wide audience was able to read your essay, contact Pew Research center and answer a poll that they were doing BECAUSE of your essay, and then tabulate and report the results ALL within three days...that's GREAT! Did they cite you within the poll results to give you the credit that you deserve?

Hi Scott,When I first saw your comment, I thought you were kidding - as no one would really be so dense as to mistake my closing comment for anything but a farce. Then I saw your comment on "Mysteries and Enigmas" [http://www.thepeopleofdetroit....] and I realized that you probably are sort of stupid (if it makes you feel any better, most people are).Nonetheless, thanks for looking in on the project. Every page view the project gets, feeds an AIDS orphan in Africa. - Noah